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What kind of Custom Tau models are out there?

I just stumbled upon:

Apparently Gundam Converge models, with weapons and heads stripped off make good Tau battlesuits.

What other kind of unique suits have you seen or done?

If Tau looked more like the one on the right, then I'd be much more interested in getting some. I just can't get past the toothpick legs on GW's models.

Well, at $10 a Model, + Bits. You are looking at the same price per model for normal Tau models. (XV8's usually run about $15 for a single + 2 drones.)

The one on the right is a SD gundam model, or one of the smaller gundam model kits, with tau stuff glued on.

The one on the left is easy to replicate if you are good with clippers.

die toten hosen wrote:
The one on the right is a SD gundam model, or one of the smaller gundam model kits, with tau stuff glued on.

The one on the left is easy to replicate if you are good with clippers.

The one on the left is a Games Workshop Tau model.

And the one on the right is SD from the Gundam Converge line.

The one on the right is awesome, I am going to make a load of them. I hate the crisis suit model, they look awful, and the commanders who do look good, are fine cast.

I need to remember to show this to my brother

Does anyone know who made the one on the right?

Boniface wrote:
Does anyone know who made the one on the right?

It is the Gundam Converge Zephyranthes - RX - 78 GP 01 (NOT the Full Vernian / Burnian as that is the later upgraded version)

Cut off the head, and weapons. Then add what looks like a Commander Tau head to it and several Tau weapon bits. Paint.

Here's a custom broadside I purchased... One of my favorite models.

That's pretty awesome! Any chance of getting some clearer pictures?

I like the "Tube TV" look of the head.

Sry, iPhone and Dakka have this weird thing where if I upload two pics, it will show the same one twice.

Gundam gashapon models are a frequent source for crisis suits as is mixing bits from forgeworld models with gw ones. Larger plastic models can make a good stand in for riptide variants as well. I've seen on some youtube videos folks using AT-43 models for tau as well (the little power armors for stealth suits and larger models for broadsides).

I haven't made any completely unique from outside 40k tau models but I have recently been converting a normal crisis commander into Farsight.. not sure if that counts though.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/581663.page

Wow, I really like that with the cloth and blade!

I've been thinking of spending some money and buying a Commander suit. I don't know why most seem to think it's ugly.

I think it pose is horrendous. but some green stuff, an exacto knife, and some glue, this can be fixed.

Thanks for the feedback! I'm still not sure on the cloaks and will likely punt the decision until I see how he looks alongside some friends (see below).

The standard pose is pretty bad IMO for several reasons. From a style standpoint, the whole leaning back and not aiming your gun pose just doesn't appeal to me as a player and doesn't really match the fluff and role of the a commander for the tau unless maybe you're doing a buff commander with no weapons.

From a practical standpoint, it's very unbalanced and falls over ALOT. In prep for my conversion, I watched pretty much every youtube video I could find on that tau enforcer battlesuit model and I saw it fall down repeatedly on screen with several folks commenting on it doing so. Even though I reposed mine and it was stable when left alone, I still just in case glued a nickel on the opposite end of the base bottom to make sure it doesn't instantly fall down on a slight slope.

I do, however, really love the overall look of the enforcer model in that it isn't a smooshed down model like the normal plastic ones and (to a lesser extent) the forgeworld variants. It's the first crisis suit model that IMO matches the scale and style of the art and actually looks like a fire warrior can fit in the chest.

I'm actually planning on making a whole tiny farsight ally force (farsight and the mandatory 3 man crisis team) using only that model so I definitely agree that it can be fixed with some work. I'll update the above thread as well as my blog sig once I get the additional models (I've got two so far). With the switchover of finecast models to "direct ONLY" status, it's actually hard to find it online unless you order from GW at full price.

Does anyone have any experience with converting a gundam converge model?

I'm looking at it and don't think it'll be hard but do want a little variety in pose etc. Can they be easily altered?

Or it there another model type of similar size?

One I found on Spikey Bits. Full credits go to mipcap for this awesome Commander conversion.




Automatically Appended Next Post:
Oh, and if we're talking about Tau conversions, we can't possibly forget Commander Shadow-tsundere, right?






**ducks for cover**

That suit is awesome. I wish all suits were like that. I can see some of how it was made. Would love to know the technique.

Personally i prefer the original shadowsun, call me odd but i dont see why a woman in a war zone situation would wear no armour.

In the fantasy world, the more skin you show, the more armor you have.

IE: Naked = NEVER HIT.


----------------------------

I like the idea of making Shadowsun a more revealing model. But I don't like the level of "Anime" that was applied.
I'd like to see something similar, maybe with a bit more tech armor. (like a skin tight suit: IE: samus) and less anime eyes.

Boniface wrote:
That suit is awesome. I wish all suits were like that. I can see some of how it was made. Would love to know the technique.

Personally i prefer the original shadowsun, call me odd but i dont see why a woman in a war zone situation would wear no armour.

If you're talking about mipcap's custom, a brief description was made by him here and here. Happy building.

My main discontent with the Crisis Suit models is how stocky they are. Sure, a pilot is supposed to be crammed in there somewhere, but it looks like a variation on a cube with arms and legs.... So, I took Star Engine (Vectored Engine?) bits from the Eldar Falcon/Fire Prism/Wave Serpent to make 'waists' for the suits. There's a tutorial around somewhere about how to cut them to build in a waist, but that conversion was quite a bit more involved than mine. I clipped the 'nozzle' parts off of three sides, leaving one to sit in front of the pelvis. I used another one to layer up the front of the suit to help tie it in a little. I used two half-bits to sit over the hips, since the conversion exposes the top of the ball joint. I think I cut these legs to reposition them, and I used Stealth Suit shoulder pads as knee pads. The pictures don't show it (and I might not have done it on this one), but I use the shield bit from the Crisis Suit to sit on the butt (there's a gap between waist and butt in the back after the conversion). [EDIT: Oh yeah, and I used what I think are the actual Vectored Engine bits on the back, though I didn't do that on all of them.]

These are by no means awesome, but they were ebay rescues to begin with, I had all the bits on hand (so it was cheap) and it really didn't take much time at all. /shrug

mr. peasant, those models are awesome!
I don't suppose that you folks ever played Tiny Tina's DLC for Borderlands 2? one of the sidequests was getting Ellie some armor - and you get to make a choice.

On Topic - The conversion Crisis Conversion though, I might like to make a couple, but only for flavor. I don't see much room for a pilot, so only a converted model for O'blat'ai (if that is its name?).

If anything, this thread shows there are multiple avenues to fix the "problem" of squished chibi crisis suits if you view that as an issue in the first place. Not everyone does but obviously folks likely to post in this kind of a thread do. In doing some image research for my own tau project, I came across this suit that I think would make for a great Iridium suit conversion. It's expensive though as it uses enforcer and xv9 parts.

http://advancedtautactica.com/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=20814&start=60&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&sid=1b2f6a916090c655e6038252f79469cb&view=print



I'm not a big fan overall of the xv9 from Forgeworld but I do like that conversion though. It looks like a sleek yet t5 crisis suit to me. Alas, making a squad of enforcer finecast suits as a project is expensive enough and I can't justify getting an xv9 for conversion bits personally.